Spring Cleaning Has Arrived!

I have been bitten by the bug, the Spring cleaning bug, that is. It has consumed my every thought and spare moment. It all started a couple weeks back when Brad and I finally decided to clean and organize the basement. When we built our house, the 4th level became the breeding ground for all our junk! And I will refrain from saying much about the little friends that gathered in our basement...Ahem....Anyhoo, problem is solved:)

I still need to get some after pics of the basement to post. However, I sat down and made a list of every room in the house, and what needs to be done in it. One area that drove me MAD was our entryway closet. Our entryway isn't huge, but it carries it's purpose. The closet however, was not. I was so sick and tired of organizing shoes every.single.day. I had three wicker baskets that were all different colors, and no organization at all.

I was inspired by Ashley from Shanty2Chic when she made this adorable basket for blankets. My wheels started turning! (First off I completely forgot to get a before pic, bummer.) So, I spray painted the baskets with Rustoleums Heirloom White. Next I found some unfinished wooden signs that I painted white, then wiped a glaze over, cut out some letters with my Cricut machine and mod podged them on. I sorted out all of our hats/gloves and Brad's hunting stuff.

We also needed something for shoes, Brad was tired of his dress shoes getting dirty from having other shoes laid on top. We ended up finding a shoe organizer at Target on sale for $9.99!

It looks 150% better than it did, trust me! It feels so good to have a section of your house organized, now, will it stay this way??

Linking to:

Metamorphosis Monday

Made It Mondays

Make It for Monday
DIY Showoff

Do It Yourself Day
The Girl Creative
Fingerprints on the Fridge

Season of Lent

I can't believe the season of Lent is already upon us. I love this time of year, as it really forces me to slow down, and reflect on what Lent is really about. Every year I ponder on what to give up (although I think "giving up" something is technically a Catholic thing) as I feel it is important to sacrifice something you love in honor of Jesus' sacrifices for us.

Last year I reluctantly gave up chocolate. I know , I know, you're all thinking ARE YOU STUPID??!! I heard that a lot. But, wasn't that the point? To give up something you love? Absolutely, but I do feel that there are exceptions to that rule, first one being that nothing should be gained for giving something up. Yes, that's right, gained. I gained 8 pounds giving up chocolate, mainly because I would eat any and everything else that was sweet. *sigh*.

This year I decided to give up Facebook. ACK!!! I love Facebook, it is my "social hour" for me, when the kids are napping (and early in the morning, and when the kids are in bed, lol). I don't play any of the games, I just like seeing what everyone is up to. I have also decided to stay off the computer a little more. I think that checking out everyone's blogs and ideas just overwhelm me, I see all these cool projects that I want to do, and then get overwhelmed because I want to do them all! I am still going to check out everyone's posts, and will still be posting myself, but I am going to limit my time.

Yesterday I spent an hour reading the Bible, and felt so good about that. Now if I could just keep this going all year round instead of once a year. Wouldn't that be wonderful??!! And I'm sorry, but whomever said that doing something for 21 days becomes a habit is full of beans. Living without chocolate for 40 days just made me want it more!

So, with all of that, my prayer for each of you is that you would take some time to reflect on this special time of year and really take the time to sloooooow down.

Much love,

The Computer Savvy Mama is Back!!!

I tell ya, if anyone has any sort of computer glitches, just call me, I was able to fix my connection after a week of really not having one. Want to know how I did it? I know you're thinking that I somehow hacked into my server and re-configured some secret codes, right??!! Well sorry to disappoint but that wasn't quite it, want to know? Weeeeeeel, ok. I turned my modem around. Seriously. It was backwards. *sigh* Can you believe that??!! Man did I feel like a heel. I was all ready to call up my internet people and chew them a new one (ok, that isn't really what I would have done, but still!). So thankfully I didn't make a complete fool of myself, and am now happily catching up!

Grrrrr.....

I apologize for not posting much, last week was crazy busy, and now since last Friday my internet connection is very spotty. It seems to only work early in the morning, ugh. I will be back to normal soon.....

Valentine Door Hanging

Last year brought the loss of both my Grandma's, who were both incredible people. Since their deaths, I have been fortunate enough to get lots of things from them. Whenever I get a bug to craft, I stop on over to the "Zimmer Antique Shop", AKA, the basement:) With all of these adorable felt wreaths all over blogland, I decided to make one of my own.

To start with, I grabbed one of my Grandma Omi's cake pans that I wasn't sure what to do with. I spray painted it in Rust-oleum's Heirloom White, it took a couple of coats (and just a reminder to have PLENTY of newspaper on the garage floor so you don't end up with white spray paint on said floor:).

I had purchased 4 yards of a pink felt material that was on clearance to make the girls sleeping bags for their American Girl dolls. Since I have such wonderful math skills, I was left with 3 yards of fabric. I traced circles onto the fabric and cut them out, it only took me two hours and gave me severely cramped hands, but hey??!!

I shot a dab of hot glue in the middle of the circle, and scrunched it up to dry. While that dried, I cut a big circle out of some Valentine scrapbook paper I had on hand, and glued that to the center of the pan. I happened to have the Z already, that was spray painted black and distressed. Glued that to the center also. Then I hot glued the scrunched circles all the way around the pan and added a decorative ribbon (that I also had on hand) to the top. It hangs on my front door, and I LOVE that I think of my Grandma every time I see it!!